Tuesday, November 05, 2019

Update on Paul Who is Stuck in Cambodia

A few days ago I posted a video telling the story of Paul, a British citizen and someone I've known on facebook for a couple years, who was traveling in southeast Asia when he got stuck in a bad situation in Cambodia. He was traveling from Vietnam to Thailand to work at a hostel there and passed through Cambodia. When he arrived at the border between Cambodia and Thailand and tried to enter Thailand, the immigration officials told him they thought he had been in Thailand the previous year and overstayed his visa by four months. It turned out someone had stolen his identity, entered Thailand in 2018 under his name and birth date somehow, overstayed his visa by four months and then been discovered and deported. Paul hadn't been in Thailand during that time and showed that to be the case in his passport. But they accused him of trying to re-enter with a different passport, fined him $1,000, which was all the money he had on him at the time and they kicked him back to Cambodia. He had only $15 left to his name and the visa to go back into Cambodia was $30. Somehow he managed to get past immigration and go back into Cambodia without a visa.

That was around six weeks ago and he's been scraping by since then by staying at a cheap hostel in Siem Reap, near the Angkor Wat temples, asking other travelers for money and getting a little help from family, but not enough to cover a flight out of the country. He first mentioned his situation to me over a month ago. I didn't offer to help him out at the time, assuming he would figure it out somehow, get help from someone else he knew. But I asked him to keep me updated on things since, as a traveler myself who has been in some rough circumstances I could relate to his situation and was curious to hear how he would get out of it.

I hadn't heard from him in a couple weeks, so I sent him a message to see how things were going. When he replied it turned out nothing had changed. He was completely out of money and the hostel (he told me the name of the hostel, but I won't mention it here) was about to kick him out. He would be on the streets of Cambodia within a day or two, penniless and with no conceivable way to get out of the country.

That's when I decided it was worth trying to help him out. Even though he made a mistake by traveling with so little money, he isn't a scammer. The truth is that I've traveled around the world on a razor thin budget myself at times, so I can understand. The fact he's traveling cheaply doesn't mean he isn't worth helping out. He was on his way to Thailand with $1,000 in the bank and would have been in good shape, if it wasn't for what happened at the border of Thailand.

Although I haven't met Paul, as I said we've been friends on Facebook for a couple years. Over the past month or so since he got into the mess he's in, we've exchanged a lot of messages about how to deal with his predicament. And my conclusion is that he's not trying to scam me. He's been stuck in an impossible situation, trying to get out of it but his friends and family are broke and no one else has been able to help him.

So I decided to go to my viewers, since it's a travel show and he's a traveler who needs some help, explain the whole story and ask if people would like to donate to get him a flight out of Cambodia. I made a video and posted it a few days ago.

The great news is that people donated more than $800 in about twenty-four hours. A huge thanks to more than thirty people who chipped in (I emailed them all an update a couple days ago and included a free copy of my ebook). I decided to remove the video because we'd raised enough money, and also because of the barrage of negativity from people who were convinced it was all a scam. It's important to be skeptical, but as I said I've been in contact with Paul for a while and am certain he's telling the truth and this isn't an elaborate lie just to get a plane ticket.

So I'll address a few of the things people brought up in comments below the video:

1. Why does he want a flight to the US, but he has a British accent?

Answer: He's from the United Kingdom, but he's been a world traveler off and on since 1983. He has a good friend in Richland, Missouri who he's been staying with at different times over the past twelve years. Paul gave me his friend's name and address.

2. Why in the video did he say "the town of Missouri"?

Answer: Just try recording a video talking to a camera for several minutes explaining something a bit complicated and see if you don't make any little mistakes.

3. Why is he traveling without a computer or a phone?

Answer: I don't know, that's just the way he's doing it. And it's perfectly possible to still travel without the latest technological gadgets. I would know. I did it for twenty-six years. I didn't get my first smart phone until 2016.

4. Why does he appear in another video drinking beer with friends in Thailand?

Answer: Because he was in Thailand, drinking beer with some friends and they recorded a video. Here it is below. That's Paul in the yellow t-shirt at 5:18:



For some reason, people thought the video was some sort of proof he was a scammer, which makes zero sense. In the video he's in Pattaya, Thailand in 2016 with another friend from the UK and they're hanging out in some bars drinking Chang beers. Like he said, he's been traveling the world for thirty-six years, since 1983 (Paul is 53). It doesn't surprise me to learn that he's been to Thailand before and drank some beers there. I've been to Pattaya myself and drank a few beers there myself. Same year too, in spring of 2016.

5. Why doesn't he get help from someone he actually knows, his family and friends, like the guy in the video?

Answer: He tried. His mom sent him $30. His friends are broke.

6. Why didn't he go to the embassy and ask them to buy him a plane ticket?

Answer: He did and they said they could only help him if he had a problem with his passport.

I realize not everyone is going to be satisfied with these answers. But my focus is on helping a guy out who I'm convinced has no other way out of the mess he ended up in, as a result of someone else stealing his identity and entering Thailand under his name, causing him to miss out on a job and be fined by the Thailand authorities, losing all the money he had at the time. Not only that but later his wallet was stolen at the hostel where he was staying and he lost some money once again. I'm not sure how he came up with some money after he was broke, but I don't need to know every little detail. I trust him and that his story is the truth.

But the final proof he's not a scammer is that I will be booking his flight myself. I've sent him $300 USD through Western Union, which he's received, so at least he has something to work with for the next week or so. But that isn't enough for a flight. I will be booking a flight for him online. It's an international flight from Cambodia to Los Angeles. That means he will need to show his passport. And since I'm booking the flight for him, I need his personal information including his real name, his passport number and his date of birth. He's already given all that to me. No scammer would do things this way, give out his real personal information to the person he was taking advantage of. That would be asking to be caught and arrested. It might be worth the risk for a million bucks. But not for a cheap one-way flight and a few hundred dollars.

I'm still looking at flights, but will probably book something for him departing within a week or so. I'll keep people updated and let you all know if he makes it out of Cambodia. He still has to get through customs, after entering the country without a visa and staying there for the past six weeks. He will deal with that at the airport and hope they let him through based on the fact that he has a flight, and they're going to want him to leave the country anyway.

9 comments:

Hoz said...

Please forgive our skepticism concerning his story, but we have not know him as long as you have, and we read so much lately about "begpackers" in SE Asia. You are a good guy to help this fellow out.

Anonymous said...

With the greatest respect, the answers here differ greatly to what this Paul guy said on the video..He implied his hometown was in Missouri, didnt say upfront he was British although that's obvious and made out he lives in the US. There were a lot of holes in his story and still dont believe all he's saying. Therefore of course people were going to conclude its a scam.As a British citizen he still cant enter the US without an ESTA visa and there are many questions like if he can afford to be a "world traveller" for so many years why suddenly he has zero $$?
The fact of asking subs to donate with a dubious case like this is bound to divide opinion too..

Unknown said...

Thanks for the update Gabe and for being such a nice guy. Hard to find people that are concerned about others. Let us know the outcome. Hope he's able to get back safely to the U.S.

Anonymous said...

Hi Gabe;

First point, I think it's a great thing that you decided to help someone out. No issues with that and if you believe his story then that's all that matters.

Secondly, I think people are skeptical because well...people are skeptics. BUT, there are some serious holes in Paul's story as it's been presented, I think it's okay for you to admit that. The thing I don't understand is, WHY did he pay the $1000 on the spot to the Thai border officials? That part sticks out like sore thumb for me. Surely the Thai authorities didn't have access to his bank account. Also, and I stand to be corrected, but I'm pretty sure they didn't go through his bags and snatch $1000 cash right? I don't think border officials can just snatch cash from people can they?

I can "buy" the stolen wallet. I can buy the fact that NONE of his friends or family were in a position/willing to help out. I can even buy the idea that fellow travelers helped out a bit at a time to keep him going. However, this entire part about his last $1000 going to Thai border cops doesn't make ANY sense to me. Did they trick him by saying they'd allow him access if he paid? That's the only sensible scenario whereby I can see a person handing over ALL their money in that situation. Well that, OR they threatened him with a trip to jail?

Also, why not get a trip back to the UK instead of the USA? Wouldn't that be a better option as other posters on your channel have mentioned he could have issues with American border security?

Anyway, many questions. But I'm happy the guy is at least not begging for spare change on the streets of Siem Reap. Cheers!

Gabriel Morris said...

Not sure if both comments by Anonymous are written by the same people, but I'll respond to them both here.

I wouldn't say that Paul's comments in the video he recorded differ much from what I've written here. I don't remember his exact words, but I think he just said he was trying to get back to Missouri, something like that. He's lived there over the past twelve years, so I guess that's his home. Just because he's from the UK originally doesn't mean that's where he calls home now. Keep in mind that I simply asked him to record a short video explaining the general situation. He couldn't have known the thousands of questions that would come up and answer them in his short video. He couldn't have known that having an English accent would be such a controversial thing apparently, and it's ridiculous that people have made a big deal out of it. Millions of people live in the US who weren't born there. Paul did his best to convey the overall situation. But it's a complicated story and he couldn't detail it all in a few minutes and explain everything precisely. That's why I recorded a video to go along with his, trying to fill in some of the gaps as best as I could.

As for the other questions, lots of perfectly good questions that I don't know the answers to because it's not my story, so I don't know exactly what happened. I'm not interested in interrogating him about everything. I asked him a few questions, which he had answers to. Beyond that I'm trusting that he's telling the truth based on having determined from my interactions with him that he's a decent guy in a tough situation.

Anonymous said...

The accent is not the issue, most people do realise foreigners live in the US however the YT video filmed 3yrs ago by one of his english friends said he's from Newcastle,UK and he was travelling around the US "on a shoestring". That doesn't sound like legally having right to live in the US.ie Green Card etc The whole thing just came across very shifty...

Anonymous said...

I think when he exits Cambodia he will have to pay for overstay by the amount of days (I'm not sure of the daily rate) and if he's unlucky he may be asked for some "extra fees" as well.

Anonymous said...

Any update on this

Unknown said...

Everything went well at the end i hope